


“Who Are You ?”

by elixkatsu



Series: “Who Are You ?” [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College, Angst, Haikyuu - Freeform, Hanahaki Disease, Hospital, Hurt/Comfort, Kenma, Kuroo - Freeform, Kuroo tetsuro, M/M, PG rated, Pain, hq, kenma kozume - Freeform, this was very painful to write aha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-20 08:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30002328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elixkatsu/pseuds/elixkatsu
Summary: kuroo and kenma grew apart since the end of highschool. kuroo moved away from the nerima ward to a different prefecture for college. going their separate ways and barley keeping in touch, it was quite easy to move on with their fast paced lives. people eventually grow apart. however, kuroo moved back to the nerima ward recently and, unknowingly, enrolled in the same college as kenma. this means that they’re  bound to run into each other and bond again just like old times...right ?
Relationships: Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Series: “Who Are You ?” [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2206974
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

why ? 

why was he infiltrating his thoughts ? why was he flooded with these haunting memories all of a sudden ?

kuroo. 

kuroo tetsurō. 

and god, was it exhausting being around such a person. 

kuroo was a magnet. 

everyone and everything liked him and he constantly had some kind of significant other, who wasn’t so significant to him, or fling in his back pocket. 

even kenma’s pet cat preferred kuroo over his owner. 

because of the constant flings, kenma kept his blossoming feelings to himself, where they belonged .... in his opinion anyway.

he believed it would be a waste of time to even consider confessing his feelings to his friend as he was so sure that it was unrequited. he knew that it would end in the downfall of their friendship and didn’t want to risk it, he loved kuroo’s company too much to jeopardise that. 

he got over kuroo to the best of his abilities since then, but when the moon rose at night, he laid in bed, restless.

tonight just so happened to be one of the worser nights. where he counsels even find it in himself to sleep. 

he often did this. 

due to his messed up sleep schedule, his mind was more awake at night and tended to hyper-focus on a certain thing. 

when this happened, kenma tended to play video games to get his mind to stop.

to focus on something else. 

to calm down. 

that’s exactly what he did this particular night. 

he pulled himself off the springy and somewhat tolerable mattress and sluggishly made his way over to his desk. turning on his pc, clicked away at his mouse, playing the first game that came to mind, desperately waiting for his eyes lids to get heavy so he could finally rest. 

๑ ๑ ๑

kuroo on the other hand, was - just as expected - in a relationship. 

however he and his boyfriend we’re going through quite a rough patch. 

kuroo was distancing himself from his significant other. 

not physically. 

just ... emotionally and mentally. 

he had something on his mind. 

someone.

his thoughts were overtaken by memories of that god forsaken boy who he no longer had any connections to. 

everything reminded kuroo of him and it was eating him alive. 

he often looked at pictures from their highschool days whenever this happened.

he just wanted to see him again. 

he was daydreaming constantly, recalling old thoughts and feelings he had regarding the boy. 

he felt as if he was just a shell of a body, filled with despair and longing for such a connection. 

he felt bad for feeling such emotions about someone who wasn’t shoji, his current boyfriend, but he couldn’t help it. 

he couldn’t shut off his brain. 

no matter how hard he wanted to. 

after they left high school, the boys went their separate ways. 

kuroo went to a university in a different prefecture and kenma stayed in the nerima ward, tokyo. 

however, kuroo transferred back to the nerima ward in his third year and attended the same school as kenma, to his lack on knowledge. 

kuroo majored in chemistry and kenma, computer sciences. 

they had completely different schedules and because of this, they never seemed to come into contact with each other. 

however with the lack of communication in mind and the recent infiltration of memories, kuroo started playing video games more frequently.

they remind him of the times that he and kenma would stay up all night playing together and attends school the next day with bags under their eyes. 

the good times.

he eventually made a bunch of friends on multiple discord servers due to his common visits.

however, there was only one friend that he made who he spoke to frequently. 

way more than everyone else in the chats he joined, anyway. 

he went by the same “kozuki”. 

his personality and playing style seemed comforting and familiar and kuroo enjoyed it.

he learnt a lot from him and constantly improved with every game they played and same for kozuki, he seemed to be constantly improving and wouldn’t settle for anything less than first place. 

and kuroo, being as competitive as he is, felt the exact same way. 

they became pretty close but never really spoke about their personal life in depth due to it just never coming up in conversation, however they did plan of eventually meeting.

there, they would decide to get to know each other properly. 

๑ ๑ ๑

the door to kuroo’s shared dorm slammed closed, jolting him in his seat. 

“aggressive much ?” kuroo scoffed, taking off his headset.

“im not in the mood, don’t start on me.” was all his boyfriend replied as he sat down in his bed.

“alrighty then” kuroo shrugged, putting his headset back on, resuming to the game. 

however there was a disturbing feeling of eyes drilling into the back of his head that was bothering him. 

“i know im hot, but fuck, you don’t need to stare so intensely” kuroo joked. 

“seriously, kuroo ?” shoji scoffed. 

“what.” he said swivelling his chair to face the frustrated male. “what did i do now ? humor me, why don’t you ?”

“you see me come into the room, obviously bothered by something, and don’t even think to ask me why ?” shoji squinted his eyes in an annoyed fashion as he shook his tilted head.

“you told me to not start on you, so i didn’t.” kuroo shrugged.

“well i obviously didn’t mean it, kuroo.” 

“then why say it ?!” kuroo question in an obviously frustrated tone. “ you always do this so i was going to wait for you to calm down, have another attempt at finishing this goddamn level in the game, then ask ‘what’s up ?’”kuroo gestured to his pc before looking back at the other.

“‘why ?’ you might ask. because i knew you’d be snappy with me if i continued to pry an answer out of you whilst you were in such a state and i didn’t want this to happen.” he said gesturing between them both. “but here we are.” he stated, forcing a smile to his lips in sarcasm. 

“god, just say you don’t care and leave” shoji sighed. 

“did you not just hear what i said ?” kuroo scoffed. 

“you know, i genuinely think you tune me out sometimes.” he shook his head, turning back to face his computer once more. 

“listen, i’ve been paying close attention to you lately. you’re not like you were before. you’re distant. quiet. you’ve changed.” shoji stated. 

“it’s called seasonal depression, babe.” kuroo said, making hand gestures in a rainbow form around him. “highly don’t recommend it.” he continued glancing back to face shoji for a second before returning to to face his pc, attempting to continue his game.

“kuroo, seriously.” shoji stated in a frustrated tone. 

“look, i’ve just got a lot on my mind okay ?” kuroo sighed, leaning his head back on the provided headrest, his eyes squeezing shut. 

“him ? it’s him right ?” shoji shook his head in disbelief “fuck, why didn’t i realise sooner.” digging the heels of his palms in his eyes as he rubbed them. 

“what do you mean ‘him’ ? who ?” kuroo stared at the other, clearly confused. 

“that boy from your high school who you were head over heels for” shoji stated, looking up at the other from his hands.

“who you still are head over heels for, kuroo.” he continued

“the one you constantly use to talk about. the one who’s name you constantly speak in your sleep. the one who i constantly compare myself to because goddamn it feels like i’ll never be able to live up to him with the way to talk about him with sparkles in your eyes.” shoji pointed out, counting on his fingers as he listed off the accusations.

“you’ve never even looked at me with such eyes.” he sighed, laughing slightly.

“you’re being delusional.” kuroo stated, shaking his head at the accusations, turning off his pc. 

“you’re not even denying it at this point” shoji sighed, tears glossing over his eyes. trying his best to suppress them as he watched kuroo grab his old track jacket of off his bed. 

“im going for a walk. hopefully that’ll give you enough time to cool off.” was all the dark haired male said before leaving the shared dorm room. 

“there you go again, running away from your problems.” shoji said opening the door behind him. “we could’ve talked it out, kuroo.” he continued but as he gut no rely, he closed the door behind him.

๑ ๑ ๑

he strolled down the street as the sun slowly set in the distance, giving his skin a golden glow. 

despite the beautiful and calming scenery, his mind was anything but. 

he was trying his best not to face reality. 

he did, in fact, requite kenma’s feelings.

however, he wasn’t sure if his old friend saw him in such a light. 

as bold as kuroo was, he was too nervous to flirt with the boy. it sounded crazy coming from a guy like him, but it was true. 

when he did try to shoot his shot, however, the bullet would be caught right between kenma’s fingers. 

he felt as if there was a brick wall between he and his former friend, although he knew everything there was to know about the pudding head. 

but what if he was flirting back ? he thought.

what if it was his fault ? 

what if he was the one who put the barrier up ? 

kenma was a little awkward and quiet so ... what if he was the one ‘catching his bullets’ ?

kuroo’s mind continued racing relentlessly as he continued strolling. 

“why is he on my mind all of a sudden ?” he whispered to himself, shaking his head as to hope the thoughts would just suddenly slip away somehow. 

he pushed the doors to the local store open, heading straight to the onigiri, opting for some banana milk to help wash it down. 

all of this thinking and pondering was making him hungry, and that was something he could solve, unlike all of his other problems. 

heading over to the counter he set his things down, watching as the ombré haired cashier finally put his switch down. 

“is that all for today ?” the cashier asked quitely, looking up at the taller boy.

“kenma...” 

“kuroo....”


	2. Old Friend, New Friend.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kuroo goes out to clear his head but runs into a familiar face.

the boy frantically grabbed the items, putting them in the customers bag before he felt a light grip on his hand.

“relax” kuroo said has his big hands covered kenma’s smaller ones, stopping the boy’s frazzled movements. 

“sorry, i didn’t mean to startle you.” kuroo retracted his hand from the boy quickly, placing them before him on the counter, palms down. 

this small act of touch didn’t help stopping the fact that kuroo’s rib cage was facing a fatal beating as his heart pulsated rapidly, at all.

“that’ll be ¥4035 please” kenma said softly, keeping his head down, his hair covering his eyes slightly.

“oh, right.” digging through his pockets, kuroo fished for some change deciding to made conversion as he stalled. 

“long time, no see, kenma” kuroo smiled slightly, putting his money on the tray provided on the counter top. 

kenma nodded, humming in response “mhm” 

“and how have you been ?” 

“getting by just fine, kuroo” his response was soft but tense.

“you keep calling me that” kuroo looked how’s at the other, shoulders drooped. 

“well, what do you expect me to call you ?” kenma looked up at the other with a shrug. “it’s your name, isn’t it ?” he continued.

“ ‘tetsu’ , like you used to. i mean, there’s no use in being so formal, now is there ?” 

“well that was a while ago, kuroo.” kenma shook his head. “hate to break it to you but some things don’t last forever” kenma continued once more scooping the change off of the counter. 

“what’s that supposed to mean ?” 

“im just saying that i don’t know how you expect me to treat you like i used to when we aren’t even close anymore. we haven’t spoken in ... god knows how long.” kenma sighed, pushing a few buttons on the cash register. 

“alright, alright. fair enough,” kuroo threw his hands up in surrender. “but think about it like this, why don’t you ? the universe separated us, that must’ve been for a reason, right ? right. however, however, it brought it back together again!” kuroo teased leaning over the counter a little before standing back, pacing slowly as he continued.

“isn’t there a saying that you have to let your lover go and if you find each other again, you’re meant to be.” he stopped in his tracks before looking over at the other. 

“yes, lovers, kuroo. which means it’s not referring to us.” kenma said through a soft chuckle.

“i think that’s up for interpretation.” kuroo laughed. “but look at us already, talking like we used to. i’d say it’s fate.” he smiled cupping his chin in his palm, leaning down to rest his elbow on the counter top. 

“sounds like something you’d say.” kenma shook his head, laughing a little. 

“still as kind as ever, i see.” 

“well i learnt from the best, didn’t i ?” kenma replied, a playful sarcasm laced in his voice. 

“i’d have to agree” kuroo smiled once more. 

“nice jacket.’ kenma commented, his chin jutting towards the bright red cover up kuroo wore. 

“why, thank you.” kuroo accepted the compliment, taking a step back, gesturing to the red track jacket he still had from his high school days, in an exaggerated manner. 

“still got yours ?” he questioned.

“always” kenma smiled slightly at the thought of it. “it’s just back at my parents place” 

“you don’t live with them anymore ?” kuroo tilted his head to the side in question, furrowing his brows in confusion.

“i live in the dorms at my uni.” kenma said, his attention focused on his fiddling hands which rested on the counter. 

“what university?” 

“nezaki.....not too far from here” kenma looked towards the door as he spoke, pointing behind him as if the university was right there for kuroo to see. 

“wait, really ?” kuroo slammed his hands on the counter in excitement at the words. kenma jolted in surprise as he looked up at the other. 

“i go there!” he smiled in a giddy fashion. “why haven’t i seen you around ?” he furrowed his brows. 

“probably because we take different courses” kenma said in a sarcastic tone, stating the obvious. 

kuroo hummed “yeah...didn’t think of that” he laughed, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. “and your course is ?” 

“computer sciences. yours ?” kenma cut kuroo off before he could reply “ it’s gotta be chem, right ?” 

“right.” kuroo chuckled, cheeks flushed a little. “is it that obvious ?”

“honestly, no.” kenma answered truthfully before continuing. “but i had the advantage of knowing you for a long time and having you speak formulas at me for years on end so, i’d say it was pretty obvious for me.” 

“i see” kuroo let out a light chuckle, nodding.

“well you better get going, right ? it’s getting dark” kenma gestured towards the door. “you probably have class tomorrow.” 

“well okay...” kuroo nodded grabbing his things off of the counter staying silent for a moment before heading towards the entrace. “uh have a nice night, kenma” 

kuroo hummed. 

“actually..” the tall boy stopped in his tracks, turning on his heel to face the smaller boy once more with a smirk that kenma knew ‘oh so well’. the same smirk that filled kenma’s stomach with intruders known as ‘butterflies’. although he hated to admit such a fact. 

“since the universe brought us back together ....” he shrugged his shoulders as he continued, looking at anywhere but kenma. “shouldn’t we thank it by re-uniting properly ?” he questioned, catching the boys eyes whilst uttering the last word. 

“and how will we do that exactly ?” kenma tilted his head to the side in confusion and curiosity.

“computer cafe ? saturday ? 3:00 pm sharp. the one near tobu-nerima station ?” 

kenma hummed in response “so sudden ?”

“it’s a sign, we must use it!” kuroo pushed as kenma nodded. 

rushing back to the counter, kuroo grabbed the pen and mini notepad on kenma’s side of the desk. flipping to a new page he scribbled something on it, handing it back to the boy faced down. 

“don’t be late!” he yelled in an excited manner. 

with that, kuroo left. leaving kenma alone in the store. the only thing he could hear was the pounding echo of his heart in his chest, ringing in his ears.

“calm down, calm down, calm down” he muttered to himself as he picked up the paper that kuroo wrote on. 

his number. 

๑ ๑ ๑

kuroo got back to the dorms later than expected, his boyfriend already sound asleep. 

he decided to go on a long walk after his encounter with his old friend, clearing his mind was the goal. 

he headed over to his bed, laying on his back, staring at the ceiling in silence as he kicked off his shoes. 

“kozuki...” he muttered before pulling out his phone and flipping over to his stomach

[rooster_head]: hey zuki, you up ?

[kozuki] : always am, what’s up ?

[rooster_head]: you free tomorrow ? 

[kozuki]: yes, i am actually.

[rooster_head]: wanna finally meet up ? 

[kozuki] well, you know....i still don’t know of you’re a serial killer, my dude.

[rooster_head]: that’s what’s thrilling about it all, kozu! 

[rooster_head]: cant make any promises or it’ll ruin the suspense!

[kozuki] you know what ? fine. fine. i’ll live a little. if you let me- 

[kozuki] where are we meeting, exactly ?

[rooster_head]: onigiri miya, near tobu-nerima station. 12:00 pm sharp. 

[kozuki]: no. 

[rooster_head]: c’mon, kozu! 

[kozuki]: that’s too early! 

[rooster_head] you need to experience the sun again! i know you’ve been cooped up in your room for weeks, kozu. 

[kozuki] this is peer pressure. feel bad! but okay, fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again! i hope you’re liking this series so far! i honestly don’t know how long it’s going to be, however i don’t want to rush it as i want to perfectly portray everything needed to understand the outcomes i have in mind for the end. i’ll be updating as frequently as i can! - elix

**Author's Note:**

> hey! i hope you liked this chapter! the next chapter will be coming weekly. heads up that it’s going to get happier before it gets sadder but when it does reach the sad part...there’s no going back. tissues may be needed. sorry for any spelling mistakes i might have missed, i read this over and over a bunch of times and caught all of the ones i could see!


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